Writing the Great American Novel
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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to discover which of the numerous concepts a writing instructor could teach at a writing conference that would help a beginning writer write a publishable novel. The...

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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank everyone who helped on this project. First of all, many thanks to Art Challis and Matt Barton for their help on the project. I appreciate their patience and support as I...

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Introduction:
As a professional writer, nothing bothers me more than having practically everyone I meet tell me that they want to write a best-selling novel. They make it sound like all they have to do is sit down...

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emotion and dialogue to pitching to an agent, what a writer needs to know about self-publishing, designing a novel cover and how to write a great first page.
Those people who teach these classes go through the...

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However, in this Capstone Project, grounded theory is being used for two things:
1. To find the information necessary to produce the script and create PowerPoint slides for teaching the different topics to...

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Part Two: Presentation
I have attended a number of writing conferences ranging from a one-day conference in Kanab, Utah that cost $40.00 to a week-long conference that cost well over a thousand dollars. In...

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PowerPoint presentations help keep the presenter on track. They are easy to make and easy to read. However, PowerPoint presentations are used so often that they tend to be horribly boring with too much...

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your life. There were sections on maintaining balance between home, work, and writing if writing wasn’t yet a full time career. Classes could be taught on query letters and making a pitch to an agent, as well as...

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majority of students who have received their educational curriculum from a foreign country have
simply not had the rigorous demands of writing instruction in any language; therefore, their
writing deficiencies could have very little to do with...

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structure)”; “A good introduction with a good hook will make your paper interesting”; “That I
need to be more open to different types of topics and know more about writing”; “That you have
to adapt depending on the type of paper you’re working...

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Figure 6. Self-Reflection Assessment on English Writing Proficiency
English Essay Comparisons
An English diagnostic essay was assigned to the three case study groups at the beginning
of Fall Semester 2015 and a second comparative essay was...

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The first assessment simply asked the students to compare results from both essays and
determine where they received the higher score, if their score was exactly the same, or if they
only wrote one essay. From the junior classes, 77.14% received...

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The second assessment was overall essay grade comparison based on the 24-point rubric
(see Figures 8 & 9). The highest 2015 rubric score for both the junior and senior classes was
between 16-19 points compared to the majority receiving between...

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After analyzing comparative test scores in January, the juniors reported and average grade of
55% and the seniors averaged 62%. The combined overall average was 52% in August and 58%
in January (see Figure 35). Although there were a few...

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what areas I improved, and in what areas I need to put more effort.” “It pretty much shows that
my grammar is very bad.” (Undecided): “Well, until [a] certain point yes, but I think this test do
not evaluate all the characteristics that a good...

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Outline
The findings and interpretations included in this chapter will be aligned with the previous
chapter’s presentation of the data: the writer’s surveys, the writer’s portfolio questionnaire, both
the English and native Spanish essays, and...

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understand the importance of spending time thinking before writing, the importance of the
revision process, and the value of both teacher and peer feedback; however, the reported increase
in those numbers in December held much more significance...

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Chapter 1
Introduction
American education has been shaped by the great minds and innovative ideas of Plato,
Aristotle, John Calvin, Jane Addams, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas Jefferson, among many
other respected philosophers and educators over...

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While basic developmental writing courses were effective, ones that focused only on
grammar weren’t, and since most college placement tests are generally multiple choice, a
student’s language or grammar skills are being tested rather than their...